Tag: Mauricio Rua

On paper, UFC Fight Night 26 – or UFC on Fox Sports 1 1, or UFC Fight Night: Sonnen vs. Shogun, or whatever else people were calling this card – looked to be one of the strongest of the year. Usually those cards tend to be solid, but still fall a little short of the hype. This wasn’t one of those cards. All but one or two fights delivered in some form, often with jarring, violent finishes. It was all the UFC could have hoped for to cap off its run on Fox Sports’ new network.

Let’s start at the top; Chael Sonnen managed to control Mauricio “Shogun” Rua for the majority of the first round before shocking everyone by finishing Shogun with a guillotine choke. For Sonnen, this was a big win; it legitimizes his jump to 205, and he managed to submit an opponent with very high level submission grappling ability. It also netted him an extra $50,000 for one of the UFC’s Submission of the Night bonuses. Now everyone from Lyoto Machida to Vitor Belfort is chomping at the bit to get a shot at him. He’ll probably move on to fight either one of them, or Wanderlei Silva in a gimme matchup. As for Shogun, he was eulogized elsewhere before the fight. The hard truth is he hasn’t been the fighter he was since his third knee surgery after the second Machida fight, and getting hammered by Jon Jones and Dan Henderson probably didn’t help matters. Getting finished by Sonnen in the first round is evidence of that. It’s not quite time to hang up the gloves, but that day is drawing ever nearer for the 31 year-old.

On a slightly more enjoyable note was the shocking ending to the Travis Browne-Alistair Overeem co-main event. Overeem held the edge in power and technique, and it showed from the beginning. Overeem hammered Browne with shots from all angles, but particularly knees to the midsection. Browne was dropped a number of times but was never out of it, always maintaining an intelligent, if not necessarily effective, defense. But Overeem, as he is wont to do, began to tire. As he plodded forward, Browne unleashed a front kick that, while lacking the snap found in Anderson Silva’s or Lyoto Machida’s, was still sufficient to drop Ubereem. Browne followed with hammerfists and Mario Yamasaki stepped in. It was slightly premature, though Overeem had no complaints.

Handling the main card play-by-play for the UFC’s return to Boston is our man Oliver Chan (aka “O Chan”), who will be hand-delivering “UFC Fight Night: Shogun vs. Sonnen” live results after the jump beginning at 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT. Refresh the page every few minutes for all the latest, and keep the conversation poppin’ in the comments section. Thanks for being here.

The UFC held a media press conference for UFC Fight Night 26 today in Boston, featuring eight of the main card fighters as well as Irish featherweight Conor McGregor and his opponent Max Hollaway, who will be facing off on the prelims. You want to talk about hype? The press conference began with the unveiling of a fan-made Conor McGregor poster, for God’s sake. Hollaway was asked how he felt about all the attention that McGregor has been receiving lately, but really, that question would be better answered by main card fighters Matt Brown, Mike Pyle, Uriah Hall, and John Howard, who didn’t get a spot at the table thanks to the King of Dublin.

Some highlights from the presser…

- 1:08: The first question comes from Kevin Iole, who asks Mauricio “Shogun” Rua to explain why he hasn’t been able to string together any victories lately. So we’re off to a pretty good start.

- 8:29:Chael Sonnen think that MMA judges do a fine job overall, although “when people are judging people, it’s never fair. It’s not fair in rodeo, it’s not fair in gymnastics, and we’ve got problems in this sport.”

With a UFC event scheduled for this weekend that’s actually worth watching, it’s time for another installment of Ben vs. Jared, in which CagePotato’s founding editor Ben Goldstein and long-suffering staff writer Jared Jones go cabeza-a-cabeza to discuss some of this card’s major themes. For example: Is Shogun vs. Sonnen the most pointless match on the UFC Fight Night 26 main card? Is it safe to board the Matt Brown hype train? Will Joe Lauzon make history again? And is it Yuri or Iuri? Prepare for serious business…

BG: I think Shogun’s career is at stake, for one thing. If he loses to a one-dimensional middleweight (no offense, Chael), it’ll drop his UFC win percentage below .500, and bump him out of the UFC light-heavyweight contender picture, maybe permanently. He’ll enter that twilight stage of his career where he’s just showing up for “fun fights,” still famous enough to headline smaller UFC events in Brazil, but no longer part of the overall conversation. Or, he can just retire and run a gas station like his brother. Neither scenario is ideal, but the one that doesn’t require him to sustain traumatic brain injuries seems a little healthier.

JJ: Fuuuuuuck no. “Out of the light heavyweight picture?” Shogun has been out of the light-heavyweight picture since the current champion put him out of the light heavyweight picture at UFC 128, and I say that as a Shogun fan. The fact is, Shogun can’t stay healthy, he can’t put a win streak together, and his BADBOY tights are getting more constrictive by the day. Training with Freddie Roach may prolong Rua’s career a year or two longer than he would have lasted without it, but Shogun has got to be about the oldest 31-year-old in MMA. He was just used as a stepping stone for Alexander Gustafsson (unless you honestly thought the UFC was setting him up to be slaughtered by Jones again), so as far as I’m concerned, he IS in the “fun fights” part of his career. Again, Shogun fan talking here.

Earlier today, we reported that Chael Sonnen was having a little trouble getting licensed for his fight with Mauricio Rua at Fight Night 26 (or as some of the CP old guard call it, UFC on FOX Sports 1) based on his poor “moral turpitude.” Being that Chael couldn’t fall back on his classic counterpoint, “I don’t speak ghetto,” it seemed as if The American Gangster would be facing some legitimate opposition less than two weeks out from what is primed to be a major event for both the UFC and the FOX Sports network.

Well fret not, Bostonians, because according to Sonnen’s manager — who we are going to assume is just Sonnen wearing a top hat and monocle — the panel that gathered at this afternoon’s closed-door meeting ultimately voted in Sonnen’s favor. He spoke with MMAJunkie:

They had a panel, we had a meeting with them, and as far as we know, they’re going to license him. As far as we know, it will be just like everybody else’s license.

Maybe it’s just us, but there’s something about Chael P.nut Sonnen’s emphasis on “as far as we know” that makes us uneasy here. You know, kind of like how Chael used to say “As far as we know, your house needs $70,000 in plumbing repairs.”

For reasons that are not yet understandable despite being clearly explained to us, P4P G.O.A.T., multi-division UFC champion, possessor of the arms and the charms, the hefty lefty, the flyin hawaiian, the Juggernaut, bitch, Chael Phinneus Sonnen Esq., recently announced that he will be returning to the middleweight division after he defeats Mauricio “Shogun” Rua at Fight Night: Sonnen vs. Shogun on August 17th.

It’s a goddamn travesty is what it is. As we all know, Sonnen was last “defeated” by light heavyweight “champion” Jon Jones via technical knock out (emphasis on “technical”) at UFC 159 in a fight that he would have undoubtedly won had referee Keith Peterson not been in Jones’ pocket and prematurely stopped the fight. So discouraged by the evident corruption at 205, Sonnen broke the news of his middleweight return on UFC Tonight yesterday:

I’ve moved to Southern California and am training at Reign with Mark Munoz. My new contract, which is a five-fight deal, was finalized today.

I’ll return to middleweight after beating Shogun. There are two guys I want to get matched up with: Vitor Belfort, because he’s awesome and he’s on an incredible roll. And Wanderlei Silva, who I’ve heard is going back to middleweight. The landscape has completely changed. I’ve got a new contract and I’m returning to the weight class.

(Meanwhile, Shogun could be found outside the event’s velvet ropes, insisting to the bouncer that his girlfriend was already inside. / Photo via Getty)

Just a heads up, Potato Nation: The betting lines were released for the UFC on FOX Sports 1:1 headlining matchup between Mauricio “Shogun” Rua and Chael Sonnen yesterday. Surprisingly enough, “The American Gangster” has opened as a slight favorite (-139) over the former champion (+100) despite being on the heels of back-to-back losses and winless in the light heavyweight division since approximately ever.

Although Shogun is also coming off a tough loss to Alexander Gustafsson at UFC on FOX: Henderson vs. Diaz and has in fact gone loss-win in his past seven UFC contests, many fans predicted that he would emerge a favorite over Sonnen based on his track record alone. It should also be noted that Shogun has never lost back-to-back contests in his MMA career. On the other hand, Rua’s inconsistency on fight night is always a potential issue and it would appear that the oddsmakers are not predicting a vintage Shogun performance come August 17th.

The Boston Herald first passed along word of a potential issue, which relates to temporary Social Security numbers that must be attained by foreign-born fighters before they are allowed to compete in Massachusetts:

“This law has been in existence since we legalized mixed martial arts in the commonwealth of Mass­achusetts,” said Terrell Harris, spokesman for the state Department of Public Safety, which regulates prize fighting.

“It’s been brought to the attention of the UFC more than a few times since we legalized the fighting here. But they’ve chosen basically to ignore the law and hope that they could skirt it somehow,” Harris said.

When they bring in fighters that are not American citizens, there are exceptions that allow them to obtain a Social Security number,” Harris said.

“The Social Security Administration will issue a temporary work visa but it’s up to them to do their due diligence…the law is the law. The law doesn’t allow us to make exceptions.”

As confirmed by UFC president Dana White, the UFC will make its first visit to the Canadian province of Manitoba for UFC 161, which is slated for June 15th at Winnipeg’s MTS Centre. Two big-name light-heavyweight bouts are already tied to the card.

You see, this is what we love about “old school” fighters like Mauricio Rua and Antonio Rogerio Nogueira. They don’t give a shit about rankings (probably because they know the UFC’s official ones are shit anyways), the easiest path to a title shot, or sponsorship deals with anyone not named Praetorian. They only care about scores, and specifically, settling them. It is for this reason alone that Lil’ Nog — the same one currently riding a two-fight win streak including a win over Rashad Evans at UFC 156 earlier this month — recently stated an interest in a rematch with Rua — the same one who has gone loss-win in his past 7 contests and is on the heels of a UD loss to Alexander Gustafsson in December. That is of course, according to UFC President Dana White:

(Shogun vs Evans) is a fight, yeah. That is a fight that could happen, yeah. But I keep hearing this thing that Nogueira and Shogun want to fight each other, they want to do the rematch. I don’t know how that makes sense for Nogueira, but that’s what they want, that’s what I’m hearing they want. Far be it from me to not give somebody what they want.

Let’s just act like that last sentence never happened for a moment and focus on the potential matchup at hand. Rua and Nogueira first met back at PRIDE FC – Critical Countdown 2005, where Rua emerged victorious by way of unanimous decision in a fight that became an instant classic amongst fans of the sport. The rematch (and a TUF: Brazil coaching gig) was first suggested by Nog back in August, and while circumstances have surely changed in the time since, we can’t imagine there would be a lot of resistance to the idea from a fan’s point of view. Clearly White agrees, but how about you Taters?

Now break out your foam fingers and chug some Yunker Fanti, because we’ve thrown a full video of Rua/Nogueira 1 after the jump to get you amped for the all but inevitable rematch. PRIDE NEVA DIE!!!